May 6, 2007

Box Score

Emmitsburg, MD - Third-seeded Saint Joseph's fell to fourth-seeded Providence, 9-4, Sunday afternoon in the championship game of the 2007 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Men's Lacrosse Championship at the Waldron Family Stadium on Mount St. Mary's campus.

The Hawks close out their season 6-12 overall and 6-4in the MAAC. With the win, Providence (x-x, x-x) earned the league's automatic bid to the 2007 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship.

Steve Varga got SJU on the scoreboard first with a goal at the 10:01 mark of the first quarter. The Friars' Michael Farley put his squad on the board with an unassisted notch with 4:35 left, followed by another goal less than a minute later to put Providence ahead 2-1 at the end of the first period.

The Friars opened the second quarter adding another goal to their tally at 13:55. Alex McColough quickly responded for the Hawks, pulling them within one less than a minute later. Providence found the back of the net two more times before the close of the quarter, stretching the lead to 5-2 going into the break.

The Hawks were held scoreless in the third stanza, while Devin McBride added two goals to the Friars' lead, both assisted by Brendan Ryan, and Bennett Murphy converted a pass from Bobby Labadini with just one second on the clock.

The last quarter opened with Saint Joseph's down, 8-2. Robert Lamontagne scored three minutes into play, aided by McBride, to make the score 9-2 for Providence. With 9:34 left to play, Mike O'Neill knocked in a shot form Alex Lopes to record SJU's third goal of the day. Varga added one more goal for the Hawks with 57.4 seconds remaining, with an assist by Steve O'Brien. Providence maintained possession of the ball in the final seconds of the contest to give the Friars their third MAAC title in four years.

Erik Hotaling saw all 60:00 minutes of action between the pipes for Saint Joseph's, recording nine saves for the day.

The Hawks scooped up 26 groundballs in the contest, won 9-16 faceoffs and completed 11-15 clears. SJU's man-up unit went 1-1 offensively and held Providence to 0-4 defensively.

At the conclusion of the game, the 2007 MAAC All-Tournament Team was named. Mike O'Neill, Alex McColough and Zach Charles were chosen from Saint Joseph's. Providence's James Courter was selected as the tournam